With the NHL trade deadline only days away, the New York Rangers are paying close attention to the standings. Last night was tumultuous one for the NHL with 11 games, teams leapfrogging others into playoff position and the lottery standings shifting yet again.
It was a typical night in the NHL. Minnesota and Carolina won and are in the playoffs passing Colorado and Columbus who were idle. When the night started the Rangers were ten spots from the bottom on the league. Losing to Minnesota, they find themselves only eighth from the bottom. If they are successful in trading their available assets, a bottom five finish is entirely possible.
The Hurricanes beat the Panthers 4-3 and moved into the last wild card spot. Florida remains tied with the Rangers with 60 points, but have played one fewer game. With Edmonton beating the Islanders in OT 4-3 and the Coyotes topping the Canucks 3-2 in OT as well, it made the lottery standings that much tighter. The Oilers moved to within four points of the Rangers. The Coyotes also are tied with the Blueshirts with 60 points but have played one more game.
That means that the third worst team (Detroit) has 55 points, and the 12th worst team (Colorado) has 61 points. Only six points separating ten teams vying for better lottery positioning.
It’s a further irony that of those ten teams, six of them from the West still have a legitimate shot at sneaking into the playoffs.
Buffalo took a tough 2-1 shootout loss to the Lightning and their playoff hopes are slipping away as they are now six points shy of the cut line. The Sabres have only three days to determine if they will try to trade Jeff Skinner to a contender (he has a no trade clause he would have to waive).
The Flyers lost 5-1 to the Canadiens and are seven points out of playoff spot. They face a similar decision with Wayne Simmonds.
The deadline looms
All of this uncertainty along with Ottawa’s reportedly steep demands for Matt Duchene, Mark Stone and Ryan Dzingel all play in the Rangers’ favor as they field offers for their trio of pending free agents. All three Senators were held out of their 4-0 loss to the Devils last night. If they are all traded, it looks for certain that Ottawa will finish worst overall and Colorado will get the best shot of a top three pick (Ottawa traded it to them in the Duchene deal).
LATE BREAKING NEWS!
"Ottawa traded Matt Duchene to Columbus along with defenseman Julius Bergman for a package of draft picks and prospects. Stay tuned to Blue Line Station for more analysis and reaction."
We’ll have a truer picture of the lottery standings by Monday evening when we can assess which teams lost talent and how that affects them moving forward. The key thing to remembers is that while all 15 lottery teams have a shot at the top three picks, you have a shot at a top five pick only if you finish in the bottom five.
By moving up from 10th to 8th from the bottom, the Rangers increased their odds of getting a top three pick from 11.4% to 19%. If somehow they can drop into third from the bottom of the league standings, their odds increase to almost 40%. At this point in the season, it’s all about the draft.
The standings (Worst is first)
Teams GP W-L-OTL PTS ROW
1. Ottawa 60 22-33-5 49 22
2. Los Angeles 60 23-31-6 52 21
3. Detroit 61 23-29-9 55 21
4. Edmonton 60 25-29-6 56 22
5. New Jersey 61 24-29-8 56 23
6. Anaheim 60 24-27-9 57 21
7. Arizona 61 27-28-6 60 24
8. Rangers 60 26-26-8 60 20
9. Florida 59 26-25-8 60 23
10. Vancouver 61 27-27-7 61 24
11. Chicago 61 26-26-9 61 25
12. Colorado 60 25-24-11 61 25
13. Philadelphia 61 28-26-7 63 26
14. Buffalo 60 28-24-8 64 24
15. Columbus 59 33-23-3 69 33
Second East Wild Card Cut Line: 70 points
Second West Wild Card Cut Line: 62 points
Who to root for
Only five games in the NHL on Friday. Ranger fans should be watching the results of the three of the games very closely.
Blue Jackets @ Senators – A Columbus win will propel them into the wild card again.. If they lose to the lowly Senators (a relative impossibility), they will be in even a tougher spot with their Panarin/Bobrovsky problem. Trade them both and not get a decent return? Hey, they are not even a playoff team today, with both of them. It’s a really tough call for the Blue Jackets and every NHL general manager is aware of it.
Wild @ Red Wings – Minnesota wins and they solidify their hold on the final wild spot. Detroit wins and they are only three points behind the Rangers. Minnesota has more to play for, but root for the Red Wings. The Wild are another team on the playoff cusp that has to decide whether to be buyers or sellers in three days….not a lot of time.
Avalanche @ Blackhawks – If Colorado wins this game and the Wild lose, they are back in the wild card. If they both lose it is status quo. If the Wild win and Colorado loses, it gets that much more desperate for Colorado, long rumored to be interested in some of the Rangers’ trade bait. As for the Blackhawks, they are only one point better than the Rangers and only one point out of the wild card. Both teams have a lot to play for….pick your poison in this one.
Colorado is a fascinating story. Everything about them screams playoffs. They are offensively gifted and have a plus goal differential. Yet, they are one point out of the wild card. Why? Because they have gone to overtime or the shootout 12 times this season and won only once. Their inability to win in extra time has just killed them. If they had a .500 record in overtime games, they would have 66 points and would be comfortably placed in the first wild card position.
Saturday the league gets busy again with 11 games. The fun part will be watching to see who will be held out of their games to protect against injury. The Rangers host the Devils in a matinee game (the Blueshirts have won only one out of seven daytime starts). 12 of the 15 lottery teams will be in action so we should see some movement in the standings.